The concept Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) describes a company's social and environmental work. More and more companies have embraced the concept of CSR and for some businesses, it has become equally important to present its efforts within CSR as to present its latest profits.The purpose of this essay is to establish an overall picture of a company's CSR efforts and to discuss the potential conflict between CSR and the aim for profit We investigate how businesses can improve their CSR effort so that it contributes to a positive development for the society while still creating economic value for the company. The study is based on a qualitative study of four Swedish companies in the fashion industry: Kappahl, Gina Tricot, Åhlens and Indiska. The results show that according to the theoretical framework, the four companies do not reach a complete strategic approach to CSR. To achieve this it is necessary for the companies to change their current CSR-activities..

Abstract För att vi i fortsättningen skall kunna ha ett allmänt försäkringssystem med legitimitet, krävs det att tron på systemet är så pass stark att det inte finns en känsla av att det går att fuska sig till förmåner. Det handlar inte i första hand om att minska statens utgifter genom att reducera fel och fusk. Huvudmålet är snarare att minska felen och fusket för att upprätthålla rättsordningen och framförallt legitimiteten i systemet. Om inte denna legitimitet finns får vi ett bräckligt system som när som helst kan haverera. Syftet med uppsatsen är att analysera själva fenomenet bidragsfusk med hjälp av ekonomisk teori och göra en teoretisk analys av varför fusk förekommer.

In recent years there have been many corporate scandals from environmental and social aspects. Corporate irresponsible behavior has led to major public discussions on responsibility and these pressures made that many companies wanting to show that they are working for a sustainable development by voluntarily reporting economic, environmental and social and social issues in the financial statement. They hope this will create credibility for the companies. In the current situation, there are a number of guidelines that companies can use to report sustainability. One of these is the GRI guidelines which is an international framework that covers many accounting areas and allows companies to compare their sustainability reports with other companies.The purpose of this study is to determine if all state-owned companies follows the government?s requirement that these companies must form a sustainability report under the GRI guidelines, and the sustainability report must be audited and certified by an outside party.

Ekonomiska kriser genomgår i regel tre faser, en akut fas, en vårdfas samt en rehabili-teringsfas. Thailand befinner sig nu i efterdyningarna av den tredje fasen och frågan är hur återhämtningen från den ekonomiska krisen 1997 med facit i hand egentligen har gått och om man hade kunnat påverka utvecklingen genom att handla på ett annorlun-da sätt. Förtroendet för en ekonomi kan mätas på flera olika sätt, det mest konkreta är att titta på hur mycket utländska direktinvesteringar landet attraherar, och här kan man i Thailands fall tydligt se hur förtroendet försämrades för att sedan gradvis för-bättras. De inhemska invånarnas syn på den ekonomiska framtiden kan ses exempelvis i sparande, investeringar, löneläget och konsumtion medan statens förtroende för ekonomin återspeglas i offentliga investeringar i infrastruktur, utbildning etc. Det är exempel på de parametrar som uppsatsen kommer att behandla för att visa att förtro-endet för den thailändska ekonomin brast ordentligt på grund av den ekonomiska kri-sen i slutet på 1990-talet..

Design of a house requires knowledge of both technology and economics. Heating and ventilation shall be designed, costs are calculated and estimated and requirements must be fulfilled. Which heating system is to be elected is also a difficult choice, especially with rising energy prices as a factor.The choice of energy system is not always given, because it depends on several factors. Below is a comparison between district heating, geothermal heat pump and electric boiler from an economic standpoint. In a previous report appears district heating and geothermal heat pump as the best options.

Authors: Fanny Edstam & Joacim KettilTitle: Between Askim and Angered. A quantitative research of media's presentation of individuals in different socio-economic residential areas.Level: Bachelor of JournalismLocation: University of GothenburgLanguage: SwedishNumber of pages: 41Gothenburg is a city that struggles with the issues of segregation. Residential areas like Askim are poorly integrated and areas like Angered have a high amount of immigrated inhabitants. Our hypothesis, with this in mind, is that one can assume media reports from different socio economic residential areas in different ways. The assumed difference in reporting can have aneffect in the readers beliefs that an area can be better or worse than it actually is.

Through a sociocultural perspectivethe purpose of this study is to investigate how preschool teachers look at quality development in preschool and how they perceive their participation in this development.I have used a qualitative method based on five interviews with preschool teachers from three different parts of Sweden. I used an interview guide with open questions. The interview answers were categorized in themes based on the responses which were most frequent. In the result I have been using an analysis based on these themes. The result showed that the preschool teachers consider that the leadership style affects their work.

The Smart Grid technology has during the last decade been established as a way to create a greater flexibility on the electricity grid that will be needed as the development moves towards an increased share of renewable primary energy sources in the electricity production. One part of the Smart Grid technology is the ability to shift loads in time, to adapt to either price or emissions, known as Demand Response. This project, which was conducted at KTH in collaboration with the consulting corporation Capgemini, examines the economic, environmental and social aspects of the Demand Response technology. In the project, three household products are used in a model that derives the potential savings in costs and emissions of CO2e. The results show that the actual savings measured in SEK are small, but that the savings measured in percent can be as high as 20 percent. Reduction of CO2e emissions is slightly lower.

The aim of this study is to investigate how employees in consulting companies develop their competence in order to perform their daily work. The focus is on informal competence development. The theoretical framework consists of theories concerning learning and competence development in working life, theories on organizational change and evaluation, a well as professional reflection. The methods applied are narrative research and interviews based on the assumption that knowledge about reality is only obtainable through language and communication.The main results show that competence is developed through experience, social interaction, communication and dialog with co-workers and customers. The post-modern conceptions of the rapid (technical) development and need to be up-to-date has a strong hold on the informants apprehension of working life, as does the notion of not having enough time for all the competence development they would like.

Diskriminerande offentlig upphandling har länge utgjort ett problem inom EU något man försökt åtgärda genom fullbordandet av den inre marknaden i början på 1990-talet. Detta icke-tariffära handelshinder kan jämföras med en subvention och innebär högre inhemska priser och minskad import och därmed snedvridningar på marknaden. De förväntade effekterna av liberalisering av marknaden för offentlig upphandling är därför att priserna ska sjunka och handeln mellan medlemsländerna öka. Denna studie har som syfte att undersöka just vilka effekter den inre marknaden har haft på den offentliga upphandlingen inom EU. Rapporten presenterar förändringar som kan skönjas i handel, importandelen i den offentliga sektorn och priser drygt 10 år efter den inre marknadens skapande och fastställer att den inre marknaden till viss del har medfört att marknaden för offentlig upphandling blivit mer öppen, att offentlig upphandling nu till större del sker över nationsgränserna.

This thesis aims to evaluate the concept of Uncovered Interest Parity. The parity states that the logarithmic difference between domestic and foreign interest rate equals the logarithmic difference between expected future spot exchange rate and the spot exchange rate, . In defining the exchange rate it is often presumed that the parity relation prevails even though several studies suggest the opposite. Numerous economists maintain that the theory?s shortcomings can be explained through the existence of a Risk Premium.

During the last decade working with competence has emerged as a more strategically important area. Today the human resources in a company are considered a competitive advance and the HR-units play a significant role when it comes to HR-management. Different motives for investing in strategies that promote competence development and learning also exist. The purpose of this paper was to examine how the process of competence development was managed at a large global company. The empirical material consisted of four persons who were interviewed and the analysis of the material was inspired by grounded theory.From the analysis four major themes or core factors emerged as central to the interviewed persons' understanding of the competence development process; solid preparatory work in relation to competence development, communication, awareness of responsibilities and finally the taking action and evaluation of the action.

Kultursatsningar motiveras idag samhällsekonomiskt med kulturens positiva externa effekter i form av kulturturism, multiplikatoreffekter och förbättringar av en regions image. Den här uppsatsen vill infoga ett nytt perspektiv i diskussionen om kulturens samhällsekonomiska nytta genom att lyfta fram den kreativitetshöjande potential som finns i de olika konstnärliga uttrycksformerna som musik, teater, litteratur, bildkonst, dans, o.s.v. En kreativ förmåga att komma på nya idéer har alltid varit viktig för att en ekonomi ska utvecklas. Enligt nya rön ifrån Richard Florida, professor i regional ekonomisk utveckling vid Carnegie Mellon University i Pittsburgh, så står vi dock vid ett nytt ekonomiskt strukturskifte där kreativiteten kommer att spela en alltmer avgörande roll för den ekonomiska tillväxten. Uppsatsens hypotes är att aktiv ?kulturkonsumtion? kan öka kreativitetsnivån hos individer och att kultursatsningar på det sättet bidrar till den regionala ekonomiska tillväxten.

Abstract Title: Enabling Smart Research and Development through Knowledge Conversation Seminar date: 2005-06-08 Course: Master thesis in business administration, 10 Swedish credits (15 ECTS) Authors: Andreas Johnsson, Johan Rosendahl Advisors: Lars Bengtsson Key words: Knowledge management, Knowledge conversation, Research and development, Ba, Trelleborg Purpose: The purpose of the thesis is to create a model that shows how knowledge management aimed at research and development processes can be used and how the theoretical fields can be connected. Methodology: The thesis is based on abductive perspective where empirical and theoretical material has been mixed to create a foundation for the analysis. Theoretical perspectives: Theories concerning knowledge management and research and development have primarily been used. These have been complemented with material about team structures and incentive systems. Empirical foundation: The empirical material is based on semi structured, mostly qualitative interviews and strictly quantitative inquiries performed at Industrial Hose within the Trelleborg group.

De ständigt stigande energipriserna har enligt intervjuade mäklare fått ägare av småhus att bli allt mer uppmärksamma på fastighetens driftskostnader. Eftersom uppvärmningskostnaderna är störst av driftskostnaderna faller fokus på uppvärmningssystemen då det i slutändan är de som bestämmer bränslekostnaderna. Ett byte av uppvärmningssystem är relativt kostsamt och man kan därför anta att småhusägaren som överväger att konvertera är intresserad av hur investeringen påverkar fastighetens värde. Ur samhällsmässig synpunkt är det av stort värde att se hur uppvärmningssystemen värderas eftersom detta är en indikation på hur införda avgiftssystem påverkar marknaden. Undersökningar gjorda i detta arbete påvisar att energipriserna får genomslag i värderingen av vissa uppvärmningssystem och att anmärkningsvärt många fastigheter byggda under åttiotalet har elvärme, det system som är förknippat med högst energikostnader.